With the French vaccination programme now a success and cases in the UK falling faster than a heavy thing dropped from a great height I am cautiously optimistic that travel to France might be possible for the May half term break. Maybe not easy, but possible.
As this is just 6 weeks away I need to start thinking about getting my ducks in a row so I’m hoping that the collective wisdom of SF can help
I only need descriptions of the situation as at present - but best guesses where we might be in 6 weeks are welcome. I’ll be travelling from Ouistreham to south Morbihan.
I need a test before I can enter France, that should be straightforward
What are the current curfew hours (18:00 to 06:00 ?), any hints on timescale to lift (probably not with current rate of new positive tests in France).
I presume I still need an attestation if I am out and about (what the **** do I put on it for driving to the house?)
Quarantine? Hopefully not a show stopper but I’ll need to sort groceries out if I can’t leave the house.
Testing for the return journey is the biggie, I can’t find a single mention of PCR testing for travel - there’s a lab nearby so I can email and see if/how much a test might be but has anyone without French health cover got themselves tested for travel recently, and how did you go about it?
What I can’t confirm (guess it will take an email) is what the situation is for non French citizens - all the hits I get on “tests covid avant de voyager” fall into the “not quite what I need” category.
Outside the hours of couvre-feu and within 10k no attestation required but if beyond 10k there appears to be no attestable reason. As @Mark suggests, it mayc change once the current lockdown ends.
there are 2 types of test; one is available from pharmacies, the other from labs. Only the one from labs qualifies for travel IIRC.
Vanessa had two test recently, one at the pharmacy was not charged but the one at the lab did cost - automatically deducted by the lab using the CV.
EDIT:
V just checked her ameli account. It cost 40.50€ which was 100% reimbursed (if she understands it correctly she says)
You can get PCR tests relatively easily - but you do have to pay, if non-resident. Here’s one of the labs that we have used: http://www.novabio.fr/
They have a number of different locations. When you click through on the covid19 link, you’re taken to a form that you have to fill in - one of the fields is the NI number - if you don’t have one as you’re not in the healthcare system, enter 1’s (16 of them I think), and when the form has been submitted you need to ring up the specific lab to arrange a date and time for the test. Usually results available in 24 hours or less.
Hope this helps.
Too much of a stretch, in fact it looks like “visiting my 2nd home” is not, as Graham says, an attestable reason even if you are French.
Logically, if travel into the country is allowed (and it appears to remain the case that it is, without special reason, despite the increased lockdown) then onward travel from the port of entry to some destination in France should be covered as part of a single journey (I realise logic does not always apply).
Novabio don’t look to be in my area, will email Laborizon and see if they will let me know the cost.
No-one has mentioned quarantine and I can’t find any mention on the government website - is there any requirement for international arrivers at the moment?
Hi Paul, I am in the same boat as yourself, I bought my house late December and have my UK house contents in storage, So am basically homeless. I have been waiting for the pandemic to ease off so I am hoping to move June/July. So your thread is proving invaluable to me with the answers you are receiving. My home in France will be me primary residence so I do think that I can say I am going to it as far as traveling from Ouistreham to La Ferte Mace is concerned if the Gendarmes stop me. I am presuming quarantine is same as uk.
I’m not sure there is Paul (in the same way that it applies in the UK).
The couvre-feu is France’s mechanism for controlling the spread of the virus and whilst the accepted protocol is isolation, it is not a mandatory “lock-up” in the same terms. AFAIK the people of France are obliged only to do the right thing and quarantine if they believe it is the correct thing to do.
she says)
